A systematic understanding of the child's economic socialization would aid parents and teachers attempting to select appropriate educational materials and experiences for the child. It would also aid in the solution of various applied problems, such as determining the effect of TV commercials on children of different ages. Such a systematic understanding should take into account both cognitive developmental theory and a structural analysis of economics. This project focuses on children's understanding of money, between the ages of 6;6 and 12;6. More specifically, it focuses on the understanding of money as a symbolic construct, and in its several economic aspects: as a medium of exchange, a storehouse of value, a standard of value, and a standard of deferred payment. A provisional analysis of cognitive developmental factors in the understanding of each aspect is also set forth. The first phase of the research is aimed at testing and clarifying the initial sketch of monetary understandings. It entails a set of clinical interviews which will be focused on economic "games" each of 42 children will play with the interviewer. In the second phase of the research, 24 children will be interviewed by each of two investigators. Tasks derived from the first phase will be used, but they will be more systematically presented, in order both to test hypotheses about specific understandings at different ages and to assess the stability of children's responses. Transcripts of these interviews will be coded by both interviewers, in order to provide estimates of the reliability of scoring procedures. Immediate outcomes of the project will thus include a book of procedures and a codebook, with reliability estimates, for use in replicating and extending this research, and an articulated set of hypotheses as to the stages of monetary understanding in this age group.